Push for carbon fee will show up at some town meetings, of all places
New Hampshire town meetings are concerned with the local-est of local issues - two-acre zoning or buying a new fire truck or whether to spend money on a municipal fireworks display for July 4. But some folks are trying to get a national, even global, issue on the...
Online college with J.R.R. Tolkien emphasis faces a tough vote in N.H. House
An unusual bill that would allow an online college based in Nashua called Signum University to grant degrees, many for majors that are heavy on fantasy literature such as "Lord of the Rings", will likely go before the N.H. House of Representatives later this week. But...
Gas stations disappear – gas guzzlers face ‘range anxiety’
By now you’ve probably heard of electric-vehicle “range anxiety,” where drivers worry they’ll run out of power before they can get to a charging station. If your vehicle propels itself by blowing up liquefied dinosaur remains you might feel smug but maybe...
Limiting Great Bay nitrogen is a lesson in group cooperation (maybe)
NHPR's Annie Ropeik has a story about EPA approving a sort of group-hug methodology for reducing the amount of nitrogen that ends up in the Great Bay from surrounding towns. This is a common situation where the problem is worse than the sum of the parts because...
It’s never too early to prepare for a solar eclipse
There's a bill before the state Legislature "establishing April 8, 2024 as solar eclipse day in New Hampshire." It's part of the state's preparation to enjoy (and profit from) the fact that eclipse totality will pass through Coos County that day - as I've written...
As winters shrink, the sport of racing sled dogs shrinks, too
Do you want to hear about another thing being hurt by warming winters? Probably not, but here it is anyway: Dogsled racing. The Appalachian Mountain Club has a big story about the problem (read it right here) called "Menace to Mushing". In a 2014 interview, Dave...
To reduce cow burps’ nastiness, just add seaweed
From UNH News Service: Organic dairy cows fed kelp meal produced less methane for part of the summer grazing season, according to researchers with the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire. Based on these initial and other...
That hydrogen mill in Groveton will use a new technology, but details are (surprise!) scant
Note: Despite the name similarity, QuasarWave has no relation to Quasar Power & Technologies in Belmont, NH, which is a military contractor of power equipment (milpower.com/) The company installing a factory in a former North Country paper mill hopes to create...
The hydrogen-producing mill is back – smaller, but real
For more updates and better details, including why a Utah company is setting up in our North Country, check the updated story. A company that plans to produce hydrogen as the ultimate clean fuel in an empty North Country mill is getting closer to opening a factory...
Most fake-caller-ID calls now illegal in N.H. (for what it’s worth)
If you hate deceptive telemarketing and phone scams – a description that covers every human being who ever lived – as of Jan. 1 you can push back a little more. A new state law imposes civil penalties of up to $5,000 for calls that pretend to be coming from a...
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Science Cafe NHAbout Granite Geek
Dave Brooks has written a science/tech column since 1991 – yes, that long – and has written this blog since 2006, keeping an eye on topics of geekish interest in and around New Hampshire, from software to sea level rise, population dynamics to printing (3-D, of course). He moderates monthly Science Cafe NH discussions, beer in hand, and discusses the geek world regularly on WKXL radio in Concord.
Brooks earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics but got lost on the way to the Ivory Tower and ended up in a newsroom. He has reported for newspapers from Tennessee to New England. Rummage through his bag of awards you’ll find oddities like three Best Blog prizes from the New Hampshire Press Association and a Writer of the Year award from the N.H. Farm and Forest Bureau, of all places. He joined the Concord Monitor in 2015.